and gina mccarthy, head of the epa, is a comparable choice to lisa jackson, who is the outgoing head of the epa. >> i don't know whether it's too simplistic to argue, but coming in at a time lik this when we are in the age of sequestration, is it a baptism by fire? >> yes. matthews is going to have a difficult time -- sylvia burrwell, she is going to have a difficult time dealing over the next few months. i assume she will be easily confirmed as head of omb. but pruning $85 billion in a short amount of time to a budget you just took over is not going to be easy for her. but sequester's already in place. and she'll have to deal with that. >> john, does the sequester stay in place? is it a done deal? i see that over the weekend, sources were suggesting that mr. obama, president obama was offering to cut entitlements like medicare and social security. possibly as a deal out of that. >> well, he's always been offering to cut medicare and social security in a negotiation with republicans that includes more tax increases. if republicans say yes, we'll consider tax increases. i talked to ho